To check a vehicle’s history and owner information, you can look up a car’s VIN to perform comprehensive research. But if you don’t have that specific long number, try a reverse license plate lookup. It will also offer you a wealth of vehicle records and details in seconds.

What is reverse license plate lookup?

A license plate is a unique alphanumeric character combination used to identify a vehicle. By performing a reverse license plate lookup, you can access:

• Vehicle specs
• Accident history
• Salvage and branded titles
• Safety recalls
• Sales history, market value and estimated ownership costs
• The car’s VIN (if available)

A license plate is often used to identify a car in the event of a crime or accident and points to registration and insurance information. Since it’s easily seen, it’s usually not associated with the owner’s personal details.

So if you need to find who owns a car, you’ll need the VIN, a more sophisticated string printed in the chassis. It’s unremovable, non-transferable, and delivers a greater amount of vehicle information.

5 ways to run a reverse license plate lookup

Here are 5 options for reverse license plate lookup, both free and paid.

1. BeenVerified

BeenVerified is a top people search engine that features a powerful VIN and license plate lookup. This tool gives a clearer insight of how a vehicle works and how it was used, and also allows you to dig deeper into the vehicle owners with their contact, background info, social media profiles and so on.

Here’s how to use it.

Step 1: Go to the BeenVerified vehicle search page.

Step 2: Enter the license plate number in the license plate search box and click Search.

Wait until the vehicle report gets ready. From the left panel, you’ll see different categories of information including the car’s title records, accident history, price changes, and safety etc. Click each to view the details.

2. Bumper

As an online marketplace for used cars, Bumper provides authentic vehicle data to help you make informed purchases. It partners with trustworthy industry data sources like NMVTIS, JD Power, NHTSA, and delivers up-to-date vehicle reports that cover accidents, recalls, market value data, ownership costs, and more.

1. Visit the Bumper website.

2. Select License Plate. Type in the license plate number, select state and click Search.

It may take a few minutes for Bumper to compile the report. Once done, you’ll get all the up-to-date vehicle records.

3. EpicVIN

EpicVIN is an NMVTIS-approved vehicle data provider and one of the best options to have your VIN or license plate checked. By offering instant access to millions of verified public records, it satisfies various vehicle-specific needs, whether you want to evaluate a car’s price or examine hidden damages or legal issues on the vehicle.

The website is easy and straightforward to use. Here’s how:

1. Go to the EpicVIN homepage.

2. Choose how you’d like to search, by VIN or by license plate, feed in the correct number and click Check.

From the EpicVIN license plate search report, you’re likely to find vital information including the vehicle specifications, accident history, title history, repair records, sales data and market value. There are also meaningful details associated with the vehicle owner such as traffic court records, arrest records, DUI, DWI, felonies, misdemeanors, warrants, and so on.

4. DMV

DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) is a government office that creates, stores and manages license plate information. If you have a valid reason to request a vehicle or driver’s records, for example, if you’re involved in court proceedings or want to report an accident or bad driving, you could submit an INF 70 form online or by mail.

DMV may reveal public records about vehicle registration, driver’s licenses, and occupational licenses, but the vehicle owner’s address and SSN are considered confidential and won’t be shared. You’ll need to pay a nominal $5 fee (online requests are $2) and wait for the report.

If you want instant results, try a reliable vehicle database. No paperwork is needed, and it offers unlimited searches with a one-time subscription.

5. Private investigator

According to the DPPA (Driver Privacy Protection Act) Laws in most states, private investigators could acquire vehicle records from DMV for lawful purposes. So if you don’t want to do the job on your own, simply hire a local private investigator for assistance.

The cost may be relatively higher than the previous methods, as a private investigator usually charges an hourly fee. But you can expect excellent results and get customized support.

So these are 5 simple ways to run reverse license plate lookup. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.